BM Fighter: Evasive Maneuvers

[NewbieDMaster]

So, a question that has occurred to me. The Battle Master Fighter gets a Maneuver that grants them a bonus to AC "until you stop moving"...
What constitutes as moving for this ability? In our group thus far, we have been ruling that you simply have to move at least one square each turn. This seems to fit the RAW okay, but certainly doesn't seem to fit the RAI.
In 5e's system of bounded accuracy, a potential +8 or +12 to AC at higher levels seems ridiculous to me. Certainly not in line with the other superiority dice options, or power granted by other fighter subclasses.
The RAI to me seems to be a less effective disengage that requires no action to use. This would allow you to move across the battlefield with a high AC, drawing opportunity attacks, but at little risk to be hit by them.

My question, which of these interpretations is correct?
a.) As long as you move every turn you get a potentially huge AC bonus.
b.) You get an AC bonus during your move across the battlefield, which ends when you take an action or end your turn.
c.) Some other option that I didn't think of.

[Easy_Lee]

That one's tricky to balance, because few interpretations make it either underpowered or overpowered. I'd just say that it starts when you use it and ends at the beginning of your next turn, so that it's actually a useful maneuver without being too good. Doing that makes it not much better than the dodge action.

[Naanomi]

I have declared it can last multiple rounds so long as you take no other actions but move (and dash) and it hasn't been too strong; but yes it is a bit ambiguous

[NewbieDMaster]

@Easy_Lee: This houserule seems reasonable for making the ability both useful and not too strong, but it is just that, a houserule. It doesn't fit in line with the RAW at all... Still might consider it though. :)

@Naanomi: Good suggestion, makes sense to me. I can see it being abused by keeping it up during overland movement, as you are constantly moving... I would probably just say no to it though... Or impose exhaustion for constantly stepping evasively while walking overland. Same penalty I imposed for a Wizard that tried to spam cast BladeWard while walking. lol

[ad_hoc]

The RAI to me seems to be a less effective disengage that requires no action to use. This would allow you to move across the battlefield with a high AC, drawing opportunity attacks, but at little risk to be hit by them.


It is more effective than disengage.

Like you said, AC bonuses are huge.

You touched on a couple elements.

1) No action or bonus action to use
2) Draw out opportunity attacks

And this is the one that you missed:

3) Draw out readied attacks


It works very well as a combat maneuver that only the Battle Master gets.

This allows the Battle Master to rush a fortified position and then gives an opening to the rest of the party. That is huge. PCs are often the ones that are on the offensive with a mission to get somewhere or go find the Macguffin.

[CNagy]

As written, it is unfortunately option B. Narratively, combat is fluid and everything is happening at once, so if you described moving one turn and continued moving the next it wouldn't be as though you stopped at the end of one turn and started at the end of another. Unfortunately, mechanics requires things to happen sequentially; the mechanics of Evasive Footwork gives you a superiority die's worth of AC boost for one sustained movement. This means it ends at any time you stop moving, such as breaking up your movement with attacks or (and this is a greyer area) reaching the end of your movement speed and using another action to move further (movement that no longer benefits from Evasive Footwork as written).

Here's what I wish it was:
--Expend a die to get a bonus to your AC during your turn. This would allow you to retain the bonus while breaking up your movement into a number of attacks, as well as retaining the bonus if you had access to Cunning Action or anything else that allowed you to use your Bonus action to Dash. Or even just staying in the same spot, should you find a reason to do so.

As it currently stands, I've only used Evasive Footwork sparingly:
--To weave through defenders and get into melee range of an important target/targets (enemy archers or spellcasters).
--To get away after killing a specific target.
--To drain OAs from defenders (usually goes hand-in-hand with the first one)
--To set up a Riposte. Provoke an opportunity attack with a high AC, creature attack resolves before I move out of reach. The miss triggers my Riposte, which ends up taking place before my movement because it occurs after its own trigger (the miss). Sadly, this is a bit wasteful as stopping to take the Riposte ends my movement and drops my AC. As the capper to a Nova strike, it's not too bad: Riposte gets added to the damage and you can also tack on another maneuver effect (which adds to the damage.) Depending on the environment, you could use Pushing Attack to launch them off the side of a bridge/off a ledge.